Hau PO

Hau PO has performed an amazing feat: they have perfected coffee brewing technology as applied to Chinese food.  The restaurant smells fantastic, but the food does not live up to the aromatic promise.

We came for dinner (and, unusually, to eat there; most people appear to get take-out, but they were happy to seat us in the small dining area).  We ordered fried dumplings, roast pork egg rolls, hot & sour soup, and a collection of entrees.

The roast pork egg rolls and dumplings arrived first; an unpromising but not alarming start.  The roast pork egg rolls were almost entirely cabbage, and poor cabbage at that, in addition to an undercooked and not very crispy wrapper.  Nobody finished a whole one.  The fried dumplings (which seemed to be beef, unusually, rather than pork) were unimpressive but entirely edible; the sauce they came with was similarly unworthy of comment.

The soup arrived next - a quart of hot and sour (and delivered in the to-go quart container - we observed that the descriptions of sizes as pints and quarts on the menu was a pleasant innovation for the to-go service).  Duly distributed and tried, and it was not much to anyone's taste - sweeter than usual, and made with a somewhat acrid and unpleasant vinegar.  The only particularly positive note was the very flavorful roast pork, but the pieces were surprisingly tough even for that.

The entrees arrived - and I will observe that the service was speedy and friendly, although they were serving food of no particular appeal.  The moo shu had the same unusual and unpleasant flavor that the hot and sour soup had, all of the broccoli (especially the broccoli in the broccoli and garlic sauce) tasted off, and the hunan beef was limp, too sweet, and otherwise almost flavorless.

It still smelled good on the way out, though.